Title: The Hidden Oracle
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Trials of Apollo
Publication Date:
Synopsis: How do you punish an immortal?
By making him human.
After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favour.
But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go… an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.
Review:
CHARACTERS:
I had a love/hate relationship with Apollo in this one. He is definitely not at all how I envision him to be. But Riordan’s versions of the gods rarely are but … At first I found him quite humorous but that quickly faded and I was absolutely over him. I was over him being self-absorbed and whiny. His change didn’t happen until the last fourth of the book and while I’m glad it came, it really felt like we spent WAY too much time with whiny self-absorbed Apollo for me to truly appreciate him.
I loved Meg from the get go. It was sooooooo nice to see a Daughter of Demeter and one so strong. I love Demeter, she’s so badass, and her kids are definitely badass as well. Meg is just full of life and amazing and I just love her.
Apollo’s kids. I love them. Will, Austin, and Katie, they’re all great. And while they’re all good at healing they’re all into different things. It was nice to see that since Apollo is the god of so many things. I really hope that we see all three of them in the following books.
Nico. NICO. N.I.C.O. I love him, he’s one of my absolute favorite of Riordan’s characters and I am so, so glad that he was in this book. I definitely hope that we see him more, I love that he had such a big part in this one. It was also nice that we got to have a tiny bit of Percy, I really didn’t expect to have him at all, so that was a nice surprise! I would love it if we got more of him but I doubt that will happen.
PLOT:
This one follows the Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus books so I definitely recommend reading those two series first. Yes that’s 10 books but trust me, you will NOT be disappointed, and the plots of all of them tie in together. You don’t NEED to read them, but this one DOES have spoilers for the earlier books. So I really don’t want to tell you much. But Apollo got punished for something that happened in The Heroes of Olympus series and Zeus banished him from Olympus and made him a mortal and before he can be returned to his godly self he has to go through some trials. XD Seriously go read the PJO & HOO books.
WORLDBUILDING:
Like I mentioned this one follows the previous series and is just like all of his other Greek Mythology books. The humor and such is all there, pretty much all the elements that make it a Riordan novel.
OVERALL:
I didn’t think this one was as good as the PJO or HOO books but I am definitely going to keep reading them.
Stars: ★★★★
Recommendation: Yes
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